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Hi everyone:

I am here at Comic Con, an event that makes Harry Potter conferences look like garden parties. Yesterday I fought and scraped to get into the Twilight panel, and my ears are still ringing.

Now, this is mostly fellow blogger Candace’s territory, so I won’t talk about Twilight often; plus which, while I’m a fan of the series I’m not a FAN OF THE SERIES so I don’t have as much to say. Still, I saw this panel….

The panel consisted of the director of the first movie, Catherine Hardwicke; the six major actors (who play Edward, Bella, James, Victoria, Laurent, and Jacob), and Stephenie Meyer, author of the series. The final book in the Twilight series comes out in about a week.

Let me say up front that the movie looks amazing. Stephenie has said that she saw the story first as a movie, and I agree with her: I think it’s naturally cinematic, and that the footage we’ve seen is looking perfect. They showed almost the whole scene at the end of the first book, and I found myself even more tense and geared up than I was when I read the book.

Now, I’ll say again: The panel consisted of the director of the first movie, Catherine Hardwicke; the six major actors (who play Edward, Bella, James, Victoria, Laurent, and Jacob), and Stephenie Meyer, author of the series. The final book in the Twilight series comes out in about a week.

The place was in an uproar; I honestly don’t think Lucas could get this kind of reaction here if he brought James Earl Jones out in a Darth suit. It was hilarious, right before the panel, watching the place empty of men as if someone had opened the drain and let only testosterone out. And the screams – well, I think dogs are still reeling.

Now, you fully understand who was on the panel, right? The panel consisted of the director of the first movie, Catherine Hardwicke; the six major actors (who play Edward, Bella, James, Victoria, Laurent, and Jacob), and Stephenie Meyer, author of the series. The final book in the Twilight series comes out in about a week.

(And I’ll say now, I may be on Team Edward – yeah, I said it, mostly because I truly want Bella to become a vampire in BD – but the kid that plays Jacob is stunning.)

But this is what really got me, and how this all relates back to Harry Potter. I am NOT a fan of the big HPvsTwilight debates that go on. I think it’s silly and unnecessary, and presumes that you can’t be a fan of both series at once, or, worse, you can’t READ both series without having to choose. That’s creeeeazy talk, people. Like what you like. However, the audience questions at this panel, while from truly enthusiastic and adorable fans, were things like (honestly):

“Robert, how does it feel to be one of the most wanted men in America? BECAUSE I WANT YOU!”
“How does it feel to play superhot vampires?”
“Robert and [the guy who plays James], boxers or briefs?”

I’m not insulting these girls, I’m sure they were very sincere in their questioning, and were enthusiastic, and wonderful, and everything. And to be fair there were some good insightful questions about the film.

However, let me say one final time:

The panel consisted of the director of the first movie, Catherine Hardwicke; the six major actors (who play Edward, Bella, James, Victoria, Laurent, and Jacob), and Stephenie Meyer, author of the series. The final book in the Twilight series comes out in about a week.

Let’s play a little game. Let’s play If This Was Harry Potter. The following scenario is completely fictional:

I don’t think anyone besides J.K. Rowling would have gotten a word in edgewise. Maybe they’d get one or two questions, but the rest would be about Snape, about plot details, about canon facts that were in dispute, about her writing process, about how she feels now that it’s done, about who was going to live or die, about THE BOOKS.

I felt bad for the Twilight fans who would have really wanted to hear about the upcoming book, because no one was ASKING. The closest we got was a question directed to Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart (Edward and Bella) about their favorite Bella/Edward moments. Thank god for the moderator, who asked the same of Stephenie Meyer, who said that her favorite Edward/Bella moment is in book four. The place went crazy. But how nice would it have been not to have hit upon that by accident? The “unsolved” era of the Twilight fandom is almost at an end, guys, take your opportunities to theorize while you can!